336 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS OF 1861. 



however, generally conceded that his narrative 

 is in the main a faithful one, and that his dis- 

 coveries have added materially to our knowl- 

 edge of the ethnology and natural history of 

 that hitherto unexplored region. 



South Africa, or rather that portion of it 

 north of the country of the Bechuanas, has 

 been explored to some extent the past year by 

 Messrs. Green and Baldwin, and the Chevalier 

 de Pradt. The Swedish traveller, Charles An- 

 dersson, has given to the public a further chap- 

 ter of his discoveries on the banks of the Oka- 

 vango River. He found a fertile country and 

 a navigable river, and a people given to agri- 

 cultural pursuits, but the climate, except in 

 the months of June, July, and August, was 

 extremely insalubrious to Europeans. 



Dr. Baikie, who had been, since 1839, attempt- 

 ing to explore the course of the Upper Niger with 

 his small screw steamer, has returned to Eng- 

 land. His steamer was wrecked at Rabbah, 

 and he was detained there more than a year, 

 and defeated in his main object ; but he and 

 Lieut. Gower have been able to make an accu- 

 rate and minute map of the lower course of the 

 river, and also of the Yoruba region, concern- 

 ing which they gathered many interesting and 

 important facts. 



In Eastern and Northeastern Africa, the course 

 of discovery has .not been very successful. Dr. 

 Livingstone has ascended the Rovuma for 30 

 miles. He found it a new and important river, 

 but, like most of those of Eastern Africa, ren- 

 dered difficult of navigation by its sand bars 

 and its rapids. He believes it to be the outlet 

 of the Nyassa. 



The death of Dr. Roscher, murdered by the 

 natives in March, 1860, at Kisunguni, after 

 having reached Lake Nyassa on the eastern 

 side, did not deter his countryman, the Baron 

 de Decken, from attempting to go over the 

 same route. He left Quiloa on the 9th October, 

 1860, accompanied by 20 Beloochee soldiers and 

 a train of 50 porters, servants, and interpreters, 

 and proceeded along near the 9th degree of 

 south latitude to Mesuela, a distance of about 

 150 miles from the coast ; but here the villany 

 of his attendants and the treachery of his guide 

 compelled his return without accomplishing his 

 purpose of penetrating to Lake Tanganyika. 

 He found the country very populous and fertile ; 

 sugar-cane, rice, beans, peas, potatoes, cotton, 

 and bananas were the common productions. 

 The principal tribes were the M'gendos and 

 M'gaus, both slaveholding tribes, but they 

 treated their slaves with remarkable kindness. 



The expeditions for the discovery of the 

 sources of the Nile have proved remarkably 

 unfortunate ; M. G. Lejean, after advancing as 

 far as Gondokoro, has been compelled by sick- 

 ness and the wars among the natives to re- 

 turn ; Dr. Peney advanced 75 miles beyond 

 Gondokoro, lat. 3 40' N., but was attacked 

 with marsh fever on the 24th July and died on 

 the 26th. M. Miani has returned from his tour 

 in the same region, unable to accomplish any 



thing. Captains Speke and Grant attempted 

 to reach the sources of the Nile from the east- 

 ern coast by way of Lake Nyanza ; on the 12th 

 of December they had reached the Koko, a vil- 

 lage west of Ugogo, and were hoping to reach 

 the lake without encountering further obstacles, 

 but have not yet been heard from. Mr. Pe- 

 therick, English consul at Khartoum, had also 

 started later in the year southward in the hope 

 of meeting them, but his success is yet un- 

 known. 



A German expedition, amply supplied with 

 all the means of successful explorations, set for- 

 ward in the early summer to explore the region 

 northeast of Abyssinia, and had reached on the 

 12th of July, Emkullo, a missionary station to 

 the west of Massouah. 



The mountain of Kilamandjaro, in Eastern 

 Africa, whose elevation above the snow line, 

 Dr. Krapf so stoutly insisted upon in 1857, has 

 been measured the past year, and the mission- 

 ary's statement fully verified. 



In Australia, the geographical explorers have 

 met with some misfortunes. An expedition, 

 amply supplied with the means of successful 

 exploration, and consisting of eminent natural- 

 ists, under the command of Mr. O'Hara Burke, 

 reached Cooper Creek in the Colony of Vic- 

 toria, on the llth November; and on the 16th 

 December, Capt. Burke, with three compan- 

 ions, six camels, one horse, and provisions for 

 three months, started for Sturts Eyre Creek on 

 the gulf of Carpentaria, leaving the rest of the 

 party at Cooper's Creek to await his return. 

 They waited for him till April 21, 1861, when 

 from want of provisions and the hostility of the 

 natives, they were compelled to retreat, and in 

 their return many of them perished, and the 

 survivors endured terrible sufferings. Burke 

 and his companions have not been heard from, 

 though new expeditions have been sent out in 

 search of them, and a steamer sent to the gulf 

 of Carpentaria to watch for them. 



The Queensland colony sent out an expedi- 

 tion, under the direction of Messrs. Smith and 

 Dalrymple, to explore the northeast coast and 

 the river Burdekin, which they accomplished, 

 and made the acquaintance of the natives ; but 

 found them possessing such strong inclinations 

 to cannibalism, that they were not disposed to 

 cultivate any further intimacy. 



In New Zealand, M. Julius Haast has been 

 charged by the colonial government with the 

 geological exploration of the mountainous dis- 

 trict. He reports the existence of a magnifi- 

 cent chain of mountains from 11,000 to 13,000 

 feet in height, and resembling in their general 

 character and their glacier system, the Alps. 

 He found an abundance of excellent coal on 

 the Grey River. 



The Fi-ji Islands have b'een ceded to England, 

 and the Solomon Islands explored with a view 

 to their colonization. 



On the American continent, M. Guinnard, a 

 French explorer, taken captive by the Patago- 

 nians, and detained as a prisoner by them, has 



